PARIS, Feb. 6, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--The Commissioners of the Treasury have given notice to
Willincks and Van Staphorsts, that they shall not be able to remit them
one shilling till the New Government gets into action, and that
therefore the sole resource for the payment of the Dutch interest till
that period is in the progress of the last loan. Willinck and Van
Staphorst reply that there is not the least probability of raising as
much on that loan as will pay the next June interest, and that, if that
payment fails one day, it will do an injury to our credit, which a very
long time will not wipe off. A Mr. Stanitski, one of our brokers, who
holds $4,340,000 of our domestic debt, offers, if we will pay him one
year's interest of that debt, he will have the whole of the loan
immediately filled up, that is to say, he will procure the sum of six
hundred and twenty-two thousand eight hundred and forty florins still
unsubscribed. His year's interest (deducting from it ten per cent.
which he will allow for payment in Europe instead of America) will
require one hundred and eighty thousand florins of this money. Messrs.
Willinck and Van Staphorsts say that, by this means, they can pay
Fiseaux' debt, and all the Dutch interest, and our current expenses
here, till June, 1789, by which time the New Government may be in
action. They have proposed this to the Commissioners of the Treasury;
But it is possible that the delay of letters going and coming, with the
time necessary between the receiving their answer and procuring the
money, may force the decision of this proposition on me at the eleventh
hour. I wish, therefore, to avail myself of your counsel before your
departure, on this proposition. Your knowledge of the subject enables
you to give the best opinion, and your zeal for the public interest,
and I trust your friendly disposition towards me will prompt you to
assist me with your advice on this question, to wit, if the answer of
the Commissioners does not come in time, and there shall appear no
other means of raising the June interest, will it be worse to fail in
that payment, or to accept of about seven hundred thousand florins, on
the condition of letting one hundred and eighty thousand be applied to
the payment of a year's interest of a part of our domestic debt? Do me
the friendship to give me an answer to this as soon as possible, and be
assured of the sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have the
honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.